Air travel observations...revisited

We've touched on this before, but given that we spend quite a bit of time on airplanes, with Scott's business travel and the family travel we do, we see a lot of odd things. Airplanes are like melting pots for the weird and bizarre. On a 45 minute flight from Grand Rapids to Chicago you're not likely to discover your seat mate's wacky behavior, but on a 14 hour flight from Shanghai to Chicago, one's warts are on display for all to see.

Mad farters, domestic disputes, nervous breakdowns, "BO", over talkers, etc. You name it and we've seen it ... and/or smelled it.

However, it's not just the passengers that have us scratching our heads from time to time. The airlines themselves are a bit quirky. For example, on a recent flight, our boarding passes had the words "nonsmoker" printed on them. A few perplexing questions popped in our heads. Hasn't smoking been banned on airplanes for years? Does it matter if one is a smoker ... are they called out for some reason? Was there any question in any one's minds that Juliet and Lillie were nonsmokers?

In our opinion, they should have used that line on the card to call out one of the qualities from above to alert the flight crew ... i.e. "passes gas something fierce ... don't let this guy eat kidney beans or cabbage." That would benefit everyone in the long run.